I.

Introduction

India, officially Republic of India (Hindi Bharat), country in southern Asia, located on the subcontinent of India. It is bounded on the north by China, Nepal, and Bhutan; on the east by Bangladesh, Myanmar (formerly known as Burma), and the Bay of Bengal; on the south by the Palk Strait and the Gulf of Mannār (which separates it from Sri Lanka) and the Indian Ocean; and on the west by the Arabian Sea and Pakistan. India is divided into 28 states and 7 union territories (including the National Capital Territory of Delhi). New Delhi is the country’s capital.

The world’s seventh largest country in area, India occupies more than 3 million sq km (1 million sq mi), encompassing a varied landscape rich in natural resources. The Indian Peninsula forms a rough triangle framed on the north by the world’s highest mountains, the Himalayas, and on the east, south, and west by oceans. Its topography varies from the barren dunes of the Thar Desert to the dense tropical forests of rain-drenched Assam state. Much of India, however, consists of fertile river plains and high plateaus. Several major rivers, including the Ganges, Brahmaputra, and Indus, flow through India. Arising in the northern mountains and carrying rich alluvial soil to the plains below, these mighty rivers have supported agriculture-based civilizations for thousands of years.

With more than 1 billion inhabitants, India ranks second only to China among the world’s most populous countries. Its people are culturally diverse, and religion plays an important role in the life of the country. About 81 percent of the people practice Hinduism, a religion that originated in India. Another 13 percent are Muslims, and millions of others are Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, and Jains. Eighteen major languages and more than 1,000 minor languages and dialects are spoken in India.

India’s long history stretches back to the Indus Valley civilization of about 2500-1700 bc. For hundreds of years, India was home to massive empires and regional kingdoms. British rule in India began in the ad 1700s. Foreign domination engendered Indian nationalism, which eventually led to India winning its independence in 1947. With independence, part of India became the new predominantly Muslim nation of Pakistan. The two nations subsequently struggled over border differences and Hindu-Muslim relations. India and Pakistan fought two wars over the Jammu and Kashmīr region, and the status of the territory remains in dispute. India’s federal political system, a democracy for more than 50 years, has demonstrated a remarkable resilience in resolving domestic and international crises. India has grown since independence to have great influence on Asia and a massive world presence. The country is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, an association of political entities that once gave or currently give allegiance to the British monarchy.

The Indian economy has also evolved since independence. Once heavily dependent on agriculture, it has expanded in recent years into the realms of industry and services. Economic reforms in 1991 dramatically altered economic policy to privatize state-owned enterprises and to promote competition and investment. The economic focus of the country has since changed from one based on self-sufficiency to one based on trade with other countries.

II.

Land and Resources

India consists geographically of the entire Indian Peninsula and portions of the Asian mainland. The length of India from north to south is 3,050 km (1,900 mi); from east to west it is 2,950 km (1,830 mi). India also has two island chains, each forming its own union territory. The Andaman and Nicobar island chain lies east of the mainland between the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea. Its southernmost island is only 200 km (120 mi) from the northern tip of the Indonesian island of Sumatra. The Lakshadweep island group is located off India’s southwest coast. Excluding the portions of Jammu and Kashmīr claimed by India but occupied by Pakistan or China, India has an area of 3,165,596 sq km (1,222,243 sq mi). India’s land frontier—the length of its border with other countries—measures more than 15,200 km (9,400 mi). It also has 7,000 km (4,300 mi) of coastline, including the island territories, or 5,600 km (3,500 mi) of coastline without the islands.

A.

Natural Regions

India can be divided into three main regions: the Himalayas, the Gangetic Plain, and peninsular India.

The Himalayan mountain system is 160 to 320 km (100 to 200 mi) wide and extends 2,400 km (1,500 mi) along the northern and eastern borders of India. It includes the mountains surrounding the Vale of Kashmīr in the Karakoram Range, and the central and eastern Himalayas. Ancient geological forces molded the Himalayas as the Indian plate of the Earth’s crust burrowed under the Eurasian landmass, creating an uplift that continues to push this northernmost boundary of India ever higher. The Himalayan Range is the highest mountain system in the world. Among its towering summits, wholly or partly within India or within territory claimed by India and administered by Pakistan, are K2 (8,611 m/28,251 ft) and Kānchenjunga (8,598 m/28,209 ft), which are the second and third highest peaks in the world, after Mount Everest. Other prominent Indian peaks include Nanga Parbat (8,125 m/26,657 ft), Nanda Devi (7,817 m/25,646 ft), Rakaposhi (7,788 m/25,551 ft), and Kāmet peak (7,756 m/25,446 ft). The Himalayas region, including the foothills, is sparsely settled. Agriculture and animal herding are the main economic activities.

South and parallel to the Himalayas lies the Gangetic Plain, a belt of flat, alluvial lowlands 280 to 400 km (175 to 250 mi) wide. This area includes some of the most agriculturally productive land in India. The Indian portion of the broad Gangetic Plain encompasses several river systems, and stretches from Punjab state in the west, through the Gangetic Plain, to the Assam Valley in the east. Marking the western end of the Gangetic Plain are the Indus River and its tributaries, including the Sutlej and Chenāb rivers, which flow through Punjab in India’s northwest corner. The Gangetic Plain is formed by the Ganges River and its tributaries, which drain the southern slopes of the Himalayas. Assam Valley is separated from the Gangetic Plain by a narrow corridor of land near the city of Dārjiling (Darjeeling). The valley is watered by the Brahmaputra River, which rises in Tibet and crosses into India at its northeast corner, then flows north of the Khāsi Hills into Bangladesh. The Thar Desert, a huge, dry, sandy region extending into Pakistan, lies at the southwestern end of the Gangetic Plain.

South of the plains region lies peninsular India. The northern peninsula features a series of mountain ranges and plateaus. The Arāvalli Range runs in a north-south direction on the eastern edge of the Thar Desert, and low hills cut by valleys lie along the border between the states of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh in central India. The Narmada River flows southwest between the Vindhya Range and an associated plateau on the north, and the Sātpura Range on the south. The plains of the Chota Nāgpur Plateau in the eastern states of Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand also lie within this region. The rocky and uneven lands of the northern peninsula are sparsely populated. Herding is a major occupation in the west, and farming of coarse grains such as millet is common in the central part.

In the southern part of peninsular India lies the vast Deccan Plateau, a tableland lying within a triangle formed by the Sātpura Range, the steep mountain slopes of the Western Ghats, and the gentler slopes of the Eastern Ghats. Elevations in the plateau region average 600 m (2,000 ft), although outcroppings as high as 1,200 m (4,000 ft) occur. At their northern end, the Western Ghats vary in height from 900 to 1,200 m (3,000 to 4,000 ft), but the Nīlgiri Hills of the extreme south reach a height of 2,637 m (8,652 ft) at Doda Betta, their highest peak. The Eastern Ghats lie along the eastern flank of the Deccan Plateau, interrupted by the Krishna and Godāvari river basins. Elevations of the Eastern Ghats are much lower, averaging 600 m (2,000 ft). The plateau itself, even rockier than the northern extension of peninsular India, supports a sparse agricultural population and is also home to industrial enterprises.

The Indian Peninsula is bordered by a mostly fertile seashore. The west coast, including the extensive Gujarāt Plain in the north, the thin Konkan shore in Mahārāshtra state, and the Malabar Coast in the south, support substantial populations of farmers and fishermen. Ancient trade routes to the west helped make the cities and towns of this region into market centers for textiles and spices. The east coast’s broad alluvial plains, stretching from the Kāveri River delta in the south to the Mahānadī River delta in the north, are intensely farmed.

B.

Rivers and Lakes

The rivers of India can be divided into three groups: the great Himalayan rivers of the north, the westward-flowing rivers of central India, and the eastward-flowing rivers of the Deccan Plateau and the rest of peninsular India. Only small portions of India’s rivers are navigable because of silting and the wide seasonal variation in water flow (due to the monsoon climate). Water transport is thus of little importance in India. Barrages, structures that redirect water flow, have been erected on many of the rivers for irrigation, diverting water into some of the oldest and most extensive canal systems in the world.

The Indian subcontinent’s three great northern rivers, the Indus, the Brahmaputra, and the Ganges, flow through India. The Indus, about 2,900 km (1,800 mi) long, originates in the Himalayas of western Tibet, flows through the Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmīr state, then enters Pakistan. The waters of three of its tributaries, the Sutlej, Rāvi, and Chenāb, have been diverted, under the Indus Water Treaty, for use in India. The Brahmaputra is about 2,900 km (1,800 mi) long and likewise rises in the Tibetan Himalayas. It flows through Assam state and then south through Bangladesh to the Bay of Bengal. The 2,510-km (1,560-mi) Ganges, known as Ganga in India, rises in the Indian Himalayas and enters the Gangetic Plain northeast of Delhi. At Allahābād it is joined by its major tributary, the Yamuna. The main branch of the Ganges flows through Bangladesh to the Bay of Bengal, while a second branch meets the bay in India, near Kolkata (formerly Calcutta). Both the Brahmaputra and Ganges rivers discharge enormous amounts of water, almost all of it during the monsoon season.

The Narmada, at 1,289 km (801 mi) long, is India’s major west-flowing river; it flows mainly in the state of Madhya Pradesh, emptying into the Arabian Sea in Gujarāt state. Its annual runoff is less than one-tenth that of the Ganges system. Its basin consists of about 5 million cultivable hectares (about 12 million acres). A series of large dams are being constructed on the river as part of a massive development scheme to increase irrigation of the basin. One of the largest dams of the project, the Sardar Sarovar Dam, was designed to divert large amounts of water to an irrigation canal through the state of Gujarāt.

Three major rivers flow east into the Bay of Bengal, rising from the western hills of the Deccan Plateau. The northernmost is the Godāvari, about 1,400 km (900 mi) long. It has a basin (the area drained by a river) one-third the size of the Ganges, and carries one-tenth of the amount of water the Ganges carries. Emptying into the sea not far south of the Godāvari is the Krishna (about 1,300 km/800 mi), with a basin equal to the Godāvari but carrying only two-thirds of the amount of water. The smallest of the three rivers is the Kāveri (760 km/470 mi), with a basin less than one-third the size of the other two rivers.

India has a number of other significant rivers. Tributaries of the Ganges from the north include the Kosi, Gandak, Ghāghara, Gumti, and Sarda rivers. Joining the Ganges from the south are the Betwa, Chambal, and Son rivers. The Mahi, Sābarmatī, and Tāpi flow west into the Arabian Sea in Gujarāt. Flowing west to join the Indus River in Pakistan are the Beās, Chenāb, Jhelum, Rāvi, and Sutlej, all rivers of the Punjab (Hindi for “five rivers”) region of India and Pakistan. The Mahānadī and Brāhmani rivers rise in Chhattisgarh and Orissa states, respectively, and flow east to empty into the Bay of Bengal. The waters of all these rivers are used to irrigate crops, but the amount stored for purposes of irrigation and power generation varies enormously from river to river depending, among other things, on the number of dams on the river.

There are only a few natural lakes in India of any size. Chilika Lake on the coast of Orissa varies seasonally in volume and is alternately fresh and salty. Other lakes, such as Sāmbhar in Rājasthān state and Colair in Orissa state, typically dry out completely before the monsoon begins. Small, artificially created ponds called tanks are a feature of virtually every village, serving as sources of water for drinking, bathing, and irrigation.

C.

Plant and Animal Life

India is home to abundant plant and animal life and has a wide range of climates that accommodate a diversity of species throughout the country. Broadly classified, there are seven major regions for plant and animal life in India: the arid Indus Plain, the Gangetic Plain, the Himalayas, Assam Valley, the Malabar Coast, the peninsular plateau, and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

India has an estimated 45,000 species of plants, 33 percent of which are native. There are 15,000 flowering plant species, 6 percent of the world’s total. About 3,000 to 4,000 of the total number of plant species are believed to be in danger of extinction.

In the arid areas that adjoin Pakistan, the eastern part of the Indus Plain, most plant life is sparse and herblike. Various thorny species, including capers (spiny shrubs with pale flowers) and jujubes (fruit-producing trees with veined leaves and yellowish flowers), are common. Bamboo grows in some areas, and among the few varieties of trees is the palm. The Gangetic Plain, which has more moisture, supports many types of plant life. Vegetation is especially luxuriant in the southeastern part of the plains region, where the mangrove and the sal, a hardwood timber tree, flourish.

In the Himalayas many varieties of arctic flora are found on the higher slopes. The lower levels of the mountain range support many types of subtropical plant life, notably the orchid. Dense forests remain in the few areas where agriculture and commercial forestry have had little effect. Coniferous trees, including cedar and pine, predominate in the northwestern Himalayan region. On the Himalayas’ eastern slopes, tropical and subtropical types of vegetation abound. Here rhododendrons grow to tree height. Among the predominant trees are oak and magnolia.

The Assam Valley features evergreen forests, bamboo, and areas of tall grasses. The Malabar Coast, which receives a large amount of rainfall, is thickly wooded. Evergreens, bamboo, and several varieties of valuable timber trees, including teak, predominate in this region. Extensive tracts of impenetrable jungle are found in the swampy lowlands and along the lower elevations of the Western Ghats. The vegetation of the peninsular plateau is less luxuriant, but thickets of bamboo, palm, and deciduous trees grow throughout the Deccan Plateau. The Andaman and Nicobar Islands have tropical forests, both evergreen and semievergreen.

India is inhabited by a wide variety of animal life, including almost 5,000 species of larger animals. Several species of the cat family—including the tiger, panther, Asiatic lion, Asiatic cheetah, snow leopard, jungle cat, and clouded leopard—live in some areas of India. Most of these species are under threat of extinction. Elephants roam the lower slopes of the central and eastern Himalayan foothills and the remote forests of the southern Deccan Plateau. Other large quadrupeds (four-footed animals) native to India include rhinoceros (under threat of extinction), black bear, wolf, jackal, dhole (wild Asian dog), wild buffalo, wild hog, antelope, and deer. Several species of monkeys live throughout the country.

Various species of wild goats and sheep, including ibexes and serows, are found in the Himalayas and other mountainous areas. The pygmy hog, bandicoot rat, and tree mouse are typical types of smaller native quadrupeds; bats are also abundant. Venomous reptiles, including the cobra, krait, and saltwater snake, are especially numerous in India, and pythons and crocodiles are also found. Tropical birds of India include the parrot, peacock, kingfisher, and heron. The rivers and coastal waters of India teem with fish, including many edible varieties.

D.

Natural Resources

India’s most important natural resources are land and water. About 54 percent of the land area is arable, and groundwater resources are considerable. The Gangetic Plain is one of India’s most fertile regions. The soils of this region were formed by the alluvial deposits of the Ganges and its tributaries. In this area, as well as in the peninsular deltas, groundwater is plentiful and close to the surface, making year-round irrigation possible. These regions may produce two or three harvests a year. Most of India’s wheat and rice are grown here.

The black and red soils of the Deccan Plateau, although not as thick as the Gangetic Plain alluvium, are also fertile. The groundwater resources of the Deccan are significant but more difficult to reach, so most farmers rely on the monsoons for water. Farmers typically grow a single crop, including cotton and coarse grains such as sorghum, maize (corn), and millet.

Forests constitute another natural resource for India, with woodlands covering 23 percent of its land area. India’s highly varied climate and land produce diverse forests. The majority are deciduous forests, which are either tropical-dry, experiencing a significant dry season, or tropical-moist, receiving relatively uniform rainfall year-round. The remainder of forests range in type from tropical evergreen to Himalayan temperate and alpine. Major commercial tree species include teak, rosewood, and sal. Bamboo is a widely used construction material. Despite significant overuse of forest resources in the past, government and private efforts have reduced the rate of deforestation in natural forests and increased new plantations of trees.

The mineral resources of India include a vast belt of coal reserves stretching from the eastern part of Mahārāshtra state through Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand states to West Bengal state. The same geographical area, with the addition of Orissa state, contains major deposits of bauxite. Iron ore is also found here, as well as in the Western Ghats in and around Goa. Other mineral deposits include manganese (found mainly in central India), copper, and chromite. There are significant oil and natural gas reserves in Assam and Gujarāt states, and on the continental shelf off Mahārāshtra and Gujarāt. India also has ample reserves of phosphate rock, apatite, gypsum, limestone, and mica.

E.

Climate

India’s shape, unusual topography, and geographical position give it a diverse climate. Most of India has a tropical or subtropical climate, with little variation in temperature between seasons. The northern plains, however, have a greater temperature range, with cooler winters and hotter summers. The mountain areas have cold winters and cool summers. As elevations increase sharply in the mountains, climate type can change from subtropical to polar within a few miles.

India’s seasonal cycle includes three main phases: the cool, dry winter from October to March; the hot, dry summer from April to June; and the southwest monsoon season of warm, torrential rains from mid-June to September. India’s winter season brings cold temperatures to the mountain slopes and northern plains; temperatures in the Thar Desert reach freezing at night. Farther south, temperatures are mild. Average daily temperatures in January range from 13° to 27°C (55° to 81°F) in the northeastern city of Kolkata; from 8° to 21°C (46° to 70°F) in the north central city of New Delhi; from 19° to 30°C (67° to 85°F) in the west central coast city of Mumbai (formerly Bombay); and from 19° to 29°C (67° to 85°F) in the vicinity of Chennai (formerly Madras) on the southeastern coast. Dry weather generally accompanies the cool winter season, although severe storms sometimes traverse the country, yielding slight precipitation on the northern plains and heavy snowfall in the Himalayas.

India’s hot and dry season reaches its peak during May, when temperatures as high as 49°C (120°F) are commonly recorded in the northern plains. Temperatures in the southern peninsula are somewhat lower, averaging 35° to 40°C (95° to 104°F). At higher altitudes, as in the Western Ghats and the Himalayas, temperatures are considerably cooler.

The intense heat breaks when the summer monsoon season arrives in June. For most of the year the monsoons, or seasonal winds, blow from the northeast. In the summer months, however, they begin to blow from the southwest, absorbing moisture as they cross the Indian Ocean. This warm, moist air creates heavy rains as it rises over the Indian Peninsula and is finally forced up the slopes of the Himalayas. The rains start in early June on a strip of coast lying between the Arabian Sea and the foot of the Western Ghats. A second “arm” of the monsoon starts from the Bay of Bengal in the northeast and gradually extends up the Gangetic Plain, where it meets the Arabian Sea “arm” in the Delhi region around July 1. In July the average daily temperature range is 26° to 32°C (79° to 89°F) in Kolkata; 27° to 35°C (80° to 94°F) in New Delhi; 25° to 30°C (78° to 86°F) in Mumbai; and 26° to 36°C (79° to 96°F) in Chennai.

The monsoon season is critical to India. Farming depends heavily on the monsoon, even though artificial sources of irrigation are also commonly used. The economy prospers when the monsoon season is normal and plummets when it is not. In the past a failure of the monsoon has brought abnormally low rains in crucial food-growing regions, leading to famine. A failed monsoon season in the dryland areas of the Deccan Plateau can mean poor or nonexistent harvests for that year’s crop. In the Gangetic Plain, the groundwater needed for irrigating the winter crop depends on the monsoon for replenishing. However, an excessive monsoon may also spell disaster, especially in the Gangetic Plain of eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihār, where rivers can flood and wash away homes and fields.

The average annual rainfall for India as a whole is 1,250 mm (49 in). The heaviest rainfall occurs along the Western Ghats, often more than 3,175 mm (125 in), and on the slopes of the eastern Himalayas and the Khāsi Hills (of Meghalaya), where the town of Cherrapunji receives 10,900 mm (430 in) annually. The entire northeast region averages more than 2,000 mm (80 in) annually, with Jharkhand, Orissa, and the Bengal region receiving nearly as much. Rain and snow fall in abundance on the entire Himalayan range. New Delhi receives an annual average of 800 to 1,000 mm (32 to 40 in) of rain, and the broad swath of land extending to the south, much of it in the rain shadow of the Western Ghats, receives about the same or a little more.

F.

Environmental Issues

India’s main environmental concern is its growing population, which is expected to increase to 1.8 billion by the year 2050. In order to feed so large a population, more groundwater will be needed to irrigate crops, increasing the risk of poor soil quality due to salinization (increased salt levels). More artificial fertilizer will likely be applied to crop fields, posing threats to drinking water. The demand for meat has increased with greater levels of prosperity, resulting in overgrazing and increasing wasteland. The demand for fuelwood has grown with rural populations, leading to the loss of trees and forests. To decrease reliance on fuelwood, the government has promoted the use of biogas (a mixture of methane and carbon dioxide produced by decomposing organic matter) for cooking fuel.

Expanding agrarian population has also affected wildlife. Farmers and herders have encroached on national park and other wildlife sanctuary land, and the spread of cultivation has limited the range of animals such as tigers and elephants outside of parks as well. Poaching is also a problem. Thousands of India’s plant species are critically endangered, mainly because of the population-related pressures of deforestation and agriculture. Wetlands cover about 18 percent of the land, but most of them are under rice-paddy cultivation. To help combat these problems, the Indian government has enacted strong laws for forest conservation, wetland preservation, and wildlife protection. The Ministry of Environment and Forests was established in 1985.

India has a severe air pollution problem generated by industrial effluents and vehicle emissions. Water-treatment facilities have not kept pace with the increase in urban populations, and pollution of rivers and groundwater is a significant and worsening problem. Another major problem is toxic waste, generated by industry and deposited in rivers and oceans and on low-lying land within factory boundaries. The large number of small industrial workshops makes it difficult to enforce laws against industrial waste pollution.

A National Wildlife Action Plan provides a framework for species protection and directs the establishment of a protected areas network covering all the major habitat types. In 2004 about 5 percent of India’s land area was under protection, in 539 separate protected areas. India has a national goal of covering one-third of its land area with existing or planted forests. India has had tremendous success with species conservation. World-renowned programs include Project Tiger, which has established nine special tiger reserves, and the Crocodile Breeding and Management Project. Many nongovernmental organizations aid India’s conservation efforts.

III.

The People of India

India’s people inherited a civilization that began more than 4,500 years ago, one that has proven capable of absorbing and transforming the peoples and cultures that over the centuries have come to the subcontinent. India has long supported a large population of great diversity. The people in India’s intricate network of communities speak literally thousands of languages, practice all of the world’s great religions, and participate in a complex social structure that incorporates the caste system, a rigid system of social hierarchy.

India is one of the world’s most populous countries. In 2007 it had a population of 1,129,866,154, yielding an average population density of 380 persons per sq km (984 per sq mi). An estimated 71 percent of India’s inhabitants live in rural areas. The population grew by 17.2 percent between 1995 and 2005, down from 24 percent growth between 1981 and 1991. It is estimated that the rate of growth will slow even further in the coming decades, but India’s population nevertheless is expected to continue to increase. The annual growth rate in 2007 was 1.6 percent.

A.

Principal Cities

Dozens of Indian cities have metropolitan area populations of more than 1 million. The largest are Mumbai (2001 metropolitan area population, 16.4 million), India’s premier port; Kolkata (13.2 million), eastern India’s chief commercial, financial, and manufacturing center; and Delhi (12.8 million), a historical city as well as a major transportation, commercial, and industrial center. Other important cities are Chennai, one of India’s principal ports; Bangalore, a center of high-technology industry; Hyderābād, Nāgpur, Lucknow, and Jaipur, all centers of government and service industries; and Kānpur, Ahmadābād, Pune, and Surat, which are known for their industrial economies.

B.

Ethnic and Cultural Groups

India’s population is rich with diverse ethnic and cultural groups. Ethnic groups are those based on a sense of common ancestry, while cultural groups can be either made up of people of different ethnic origins who share a common language, or of ethnic groups with some customs and beliefs in common, such as castes of a particular locality. The diverse ethnic and cultural origins of the people of India are shared by the other peoples of the Indian subcontinent, including the inhabitants of Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, and Sri Lanka.

The government identifies some groups of people in India as tribal, meaning they belong to one of the more than 300 officially designated “scheduled tribes.” The tribal people are sometimes called hill tribes or adivasis (“original inhabitants”) and in 2001 made up about 8 percent (more than 84 million people) of India’s population. For the purpose of affirmative action, the Indian government publishes “schedules” (lists) of the tribes, as well as of some other disadvantaged groups, such as the former Untouchables (see the Castes section of this article). Members of India’s various hill tribes are thought to be indigenous and tend to be ethnically distinct. These groups typically marry within their community and often live in large, adjoining areas, which are preserved by government policies restricting the sale of land to tribe members.

Major tribes include the Gond and the Bhil. Each has millions of members and encompasses a number of subtribes. Most other tribes are much smaller, with tens of thousands of members. Very few tribal communities now support themselves with traditional methods of hunting and gathering or with shifting cultivation (also known as slash-and-burn agriculture) because of government restrictions aimed at protecting the environment. Instead, they generally practice settled agriculture. Tribal groups tend to live in rural areas, mainly in hilly and less fertile regions of the country. Less than 5 percent practice traditional tribal religious beliefs and customs exclusively; most now combine traditional religions and customs with Hinduism or Christianity. A large majority identify themselves as Hindus; a small percentage, mainly in the northeast, identify themselves as Christians.

Most tribal groups live in a belt of communities that stretches across central India, from the eastern part of Gujarāt (the westernmost state); eastward along the Madhya Pradesh-Mahārāshtra border; through Chhattisgarh, parts of northern Andhra Pradesh, most of interior Orissa, and Jharkhand; and to the western part of West Bengal. The western tribes speak a dialect of Hindi, the central tribes use a form of the Dravidian language, and the eastern tribes speak Austro-Asiatic languages.

The other major concentration of tribal people is in the northeastern hills. Tribe members make up the majority of the population in the states of Mizoram, Nagaland, Meghalaya, and Arunāchal Pradesh. These people, many of them Christian, speak languages of the Sino-Tibetan family. Sino-Tibetan languages are also spoken by the Buddhists who live along the Himalayan ridge, including the states of Arunāchal Pradesh, Sikkim, Uttaranchal, and Jammu and Kashmīr (specifically, the region of Ladakh). In the Himalayas particularly, isolation on the mountain flanks has led to languages so distinct that ethnic groups living within sight of each other may not understand each other. Other tribes live in southern India and on India’s island territories, but their numbers are not large.

C.

Religion

Religion is very important in India, with deep historical roots; Hinduism and Buddhism both originated here. Most people in India practice Hinduism with Islam a distant second. Other important religions include Christianity, Sikhism, Buddhism, and Jainism.

About 80 percent of Indians are Hindus. Significant differences exist within this Hindu majority, arising not only out of divisions of caste, but also out of differing religious beliefs. One great divide is between devotees of the god Vishnu and devotees of the god Shiva. There are also Hindus who are members of reform movements that began in the 19th century. The most significant of these is perhaps the Arya Samaj, which rejects divisions of caste and idol worship. Hindus may come together also as devotees of a guru. Despite its differences, the Hindu community shares many things in common. All Hindus who go to Brahman priests for the rituals connected with birth, marriage, and death will hear the same Sanskrit verses that have been memorized and repeated for hundreds of generations. Hindus also come from all parts of the country to visit pilgrimage sites. Four of the most sacred are at the four corners of India: Badrinath in the Himalayas; Rāmeswaram in Tamil Nādu state; Dwarka on the Gujarāt coast; and Puri in Orissa. Vārānasi is also a significant holy city for Hindus.

About 13 percent of the Indian population practices Islam, which also is divided into several different communities. The major division in the Muslim population is between Sunni and Shia branches. The Shia community has a significant presence in several areas, most notably in the cities of Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh and Hyderābād in Andhra Pradesh.

Muslim communities in India are generally more urban than rural. In many towns and cities in northern India, Muslims are one-third or more of the population. In addition to Jammu and Kashmīr and the Lakshadweep islands, where more than two-thirds of the population is Muslim, major concentrations of Muslims live in Assam, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, and Kerala states. About one-quarter of all Muslims living in India live in the state of Uttar Pradesh.

India’s other major religious groups include Christians (2.3 percent of the population), Sikhs (1.9 percent), and Buddhists (0.8 percent). Smaller religious groups include Jains, Baha’is, and Parsis. Christians live primarily in urban areas throughout India, with major concentrations in the states of Kerala, Tamil Nādu, and Goa. Christians are a majority in three small states in the northeast: Nagaland, Mizoram, and Meghalaya. Most Sikhs live in Punjab, generally in rural areas.

Buddhists live in small numbers in the Himalayas from Ladakh to Arunāchal Pradesh; many converts also live in Mahārāshtra. The Jains live mainly in the belt of western states, from Rājasthān through Gujarāt and Mahārāshtra to Karnātaka. This region has many magnificent Jain temples, supported substantially by prosperous Jain traders. Parsis live mainly in Mumbai and in cities in Gujarāt, and Jews have small communities in Mumbai, Kolkata, and Cochin.

Local communities of all these religions maintain institutions such as places of worship, schools, clubs, and charitable trusts that bring them together. Larger associations of religious groups also exist, including political parties. Such groups sometimes lobby the government in regard to legislation touching religious or social issues, such as the inheritance rights of women.

D.

Castes

The caste system is pervasive in India. Although it is entwined in Hindu beliefs, it encompasses non-Hindus as well. A caste (jati in Sanskrit) is a social class to which a person belongs at birth and which is ranked against other castes, typically on a continuum of perceived purity and pollution. People generally marry within their own caste. In rural areas, caste may also govern where people live or what occupations they engage in. The particular features of the caste system vary considerably from community to community and across regions. Small geographical areas have their own group-specific caste hierarchies. There are thus thousands of castes in India. In traditional Hindu law texts, all castes are loosely grouped into four varnas, or classes. In order of hierarchy, these varnas are the Brahmans (priests and scholars), the Kshatriyas (warriors and rulers), the Vaisyas (merchants, farmers, and traders), and the Sudras (laborers, including artisans, servants, and serfs). The varnas no longer strictly correspond to traditional professions. For example, most Brahmans today are not priests, but farmers, cooks, or other professionals.

Ranked below the lowest caste were the people of no caste, the Untouchables or Harijans (“People of God,” a term first used by Indian leader Mohandas Gandhi). Untouchables traditionally performed tasks considered “polluting,” such as slaughtering animals or leatherworking. Physical contact with these people was viewed as defiling. The practice of labeling people Untouchable was outlawed by India’s constitution, although Harijans continue to face discrimination in getting work and housing. Today many former Untouchables prefer to be called dalits (Hindi for “oppressed ones”).

Since independence the importance of caste has declined somewhat in India. Modern travel has brought people of every caste in contact with one another, since it is impossible to avoid physical contact with a former Untouchable in a crowded bus or train. Although caste is intimately linked with the giving and taking of food, no one can be certain of the caste of a person who cooks food in the restaurants and food stalls of towns and cities. There are no particular castes linked to the modern professions of bank clerk, postal worker, teacher, and lawyer. Many people have also been influenced by the nationalist movement’s ideological commitment to the equality of men and women, and lower castes have increasingly used the power of their numbers and their right to vote to gain social status in their local community. Yet castes have shown no sign of disappearing altogether, mainly because of the system of marriage. Almost all Hindu marriages in India are arranged, and almost all arranged marriages occur between people of the same caste. Only a handful of young people make “love marriages” across caste lines, and many suffer socially when they do so.

Muslims are often treated as just another caste, particularly in India’s villages. There are castelike categories among the Muslims as well. These are called brotherhoods in northern India, and they identify Muslims with their traditional occupations, such as butchers or leatherworkers. As with Hindus, Muslims marry within their brotherhood. Among Christians as well, in the 19th century and to a much less significant extent more recently, converts and their descendants continued to be identified by their Hindu caste of origin.

E.

Language

There are two great Indian language families: the Indo-Iranian (or Indo-Aryan) branch of the Indo-European language family, most of which are spoken in the north, and the Dravidian languages, most of which are spoken in the south. The other major language groups are the Sino-Tibetan languages along the Himalayan ridge, with many languages spoken by few people, and the Austro-Asiatic languages of some tribal peoples. All these language families stretch far back in history and have influenced one another over centuries.

Indo-European languages stem originally from Sanskrit. Present-day languages in this family formed in the 14th and 15th centuries. These include Hindi and Urdu, which are similar as spoken languages. Hindi, spoken mainly by Hindus, is written in script called Devanagari and draws on Sanskrit vocabulary. Urdu is spoken mostly by Muslims and uses Persian Arabic script. Tamil is the oldest of the four main Dravidian languages, with a literary history that begins in the 1st century ad.

According to the national census of India, 114 languages and 216 dialects are spoken in the country. Eighteen Indian languages, plus English, have been given official status by the federal or state governments. Hindi is the main language of more than 40 percent of the population. No single language other than Hindi can claim speakers among even 10 percent of the total population. Hindi was therefore made India’s official language in 1965. English, which was associated with British rule, was retained as an option for official use because some non-Hindi speakers, particularly in Tamil Nādu, opposed the official use of Hindi. English is spoken by as many as 5 percent of Indians, and various Dravidian languages are spoken by about 25 percent. Many Indians speak more than one language, especially those who live in cities or near state borders, which were redrawn in 1956 in part to conform to linguistic boundaries. Because the languages of both northern and southern families are internally related, much like the Romance and Germanic languages of Europe, learning a second language is not difficult.

The many local languages and dialects in India are politically and socially significant. A politician, for example, may use the local dialect when campaigning in a village, switch to the official state language when speaking in a town, and then use Hindi or English to address parliament. The language one speaks can also limit one’s opportunities. People who use a local dialect are often identified as rustics or lower class, and they suffer discrimination. The spread of primary education, cinema, radio, and television has raised the prominence of the state languages. India’s growing number of links to the global community are also likely to preserve English as the preferred language of elite education.

F.

Education

India’s official goal for education since independence in 1947 has been to ensure free and compulsory education for all children up to age 14. A lack of money and effort put into primary education, however, has hampered the achievement of that goal. At independence 25 percent of males and 8 percent of females were literate. In 2005 those figures had been raised to 69 percent of males and 43 percent of females—57 percent of the overall population. The government invests comparatively more in secondary schools and institutions of higher education. There was no serious political demand for primary education until the 1990s, when a grassroots movement arose to organize volunteers and conduct campaigns for universal adult literacy.

Education for the elite has been a tradition in India since the beginnings of its civilization. Great Buddhist universities at Nalanda and Taxila were famous far beyond India’s borders. Withholding education from the nonelite, including women, has also been a tradition. The lowest caste members, including the Harijans and non-Hindu tribal groups, were denied the right even to hear the Vedas, sacred Hindu texts, recited.

State governments control their own school systems, with some assistance from the central government. The federal Ministry of Education directs the school systems of centrally administered areas, provides financial help for the nation’s institutions of higher learning, and handles tasks such as commissioning textbooks. The Indian education system is based on 12 years of schooling, which generally begins at age 6 and includes 5 years of primary school, 3 years of middle school, 2 years of secondary school, and 2 years of higher secondary school. Completion of higher secondary education is required for entry to institutions of higher education, which include universities and institutes of technology. While most students enroll in government schools, the number of private institutions is increasing at all educational levels. Indians have a right to establish institutions to provide education in their native language and with a religious or cultural emphasis, although the schools must conform to state regulation of teaching standards. Students begin specializing in subjects at the level of higher secondary school. A university typically has one or more colleges of law, medicine, engineering, and commerce, and many have colleges of agriculture. Prestigious and highly selective institutes of management have been established. The educational establishment also includes a number of high-level scientific and social science institutes, as well as academies devoted to the arts.

In 1998–1999 elementary and middle-level schools enrolled about 135 million pupils, and secondary schools, 51 million. Total yearly enrollment in institutions of higher education was 10.6 million. The universities of Calcutta, Madras, and Mumbai, founded in 1857, are the oldest still operating in India, although colleges existed in those cities before that date. Other major universities in India include Banaras Hindu University (1935), in Vārānasi; Alīgarh Muslim University (1875), Jawaharlal Nehru University (1969), and Indira Gandhi Open University (1985) in New Delhi; Bangalore University (1964); the University of Calicut (1968); Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj University, Kānpur (1966); the University of Delhi (1922); Gauhati University (1948); Gujarāt University (1949); Kameshwara Singh Darbhanga Sanskrit University (1961); the University of Kerala (1937), in Thiruvananthapuram (also known as Trivandrum); the University of Mysore (1916); the University of Pune (1949); and the University of Rājasthān (1947), in Jaipur.

G.

Way of Life

The life of Indians is centered in the family. Extended families often live together, with two or more adult generations, or brothers, sharing a house. In much of the countryside, neighboring houses share a wall, so from the street one sees a continuous wall pierced by doorways. In other areas, in the south for example, the main house will have a veranda on the street, with an open courtyard behind. As farmers prosper, they change from adobe construction to brick plastered with cement, and from a tile or thatch roof to a flat concrete or corrugated metal one. Most home activity is outside in the compound courtyard or on the verandas of the house.

Only in a few parts of India, such as Kerala and Bengal, do people live on their farmland. The village is thus a settlement area, or a set of settlement areas, surrounded by unbroken fields, with farms frequently made up of separated plots. A large village will have a primary school, perhaps a temple or mosque, and a small shop or two. Some artisans have workshops in their houses. Most villages and settlement areas are fairly small, with about 100 to 200 families and a land area of about 250 hectares (about 620 acres) in regions where the land is irrigated, or three or four times that in dry areas. Paved roads and electricity have been extended to the majority of villages, making them less isolated. Many villagers now work for part of the day or part of the year in nearby towns or cities, while continuing to farm or to work as day laborers in agriculture or construction.

Men work mainly in the fields, although where rice is grown, women transplant the seedlings. The entire family will pitch in at harvest time because most agricultural work is still done by hand. Women fetch water, prepare meals, clean, and care for milking animals that are stabled in or near the house compound. Among Hindus particularly, most worship is done in the home, where a room or an alcove is devoted to images of a god or gods. Young girls are expected to help with the women’s work, and girls care for their younger siblings. Boys have fewer responsibilities, although they often herd goats and bring cattle to and from the fields.

In most cases a woman who marries moves to her husband’s village from her home village. Visits to her birth family, who may live a day’s journey or more away, are generally rare, especially as the woman grows older. Senior men (and their wives) exercise power in the family. Disputes within the family, which can be common, may result in partitioning of land or even of the house compound.

In the cities families still remain the center of social life. Different families (of the same or similar caste) may occupy different floors of the same house. Newer housing is in the form of apartment blocks for the poor and lower middle class, and separate two- and three-story houses on very small plots for the rich and upper middle class. Most women in cities work in the home, although some may supplement the family income through craft work such as embroidery. Poor women may work as house servants, laborers on construction sites, or street vendors. Increasingly among the educated, however, women have their own jobs as teachers, clerks or secretaries, or professionals.

Meals in village India consist mainly of the staple grain—rice, or wheat in the form of unleavened bread baked on a griddle—with stir-fried vegetables, cooked lentils, and yogurt. Each part of the country has its own cuisine, with differences in the kinds and mix of spices, in the cooking oil used (mustard oil in the north, coconut oil in the south), and in favored vegetables or meats. In seasons of scarcity, such as the months before the harvest, the poor may be reduced to having just a chili pepper or salt to flavor their rice or bread. Vegetables are those in season, and cooked food is generally not stored. Food at weddings or other celebrations can be very elaborate.

In urban areas meals are still organized around a staple grain, but the variety and amount of vegetables and meat are greater. Food is bought and consumed on the same day, and even those families with refrigerators typically use them only to keep water, soft drinks, or milk cool. Social visiting in cities is also mainly with relatives or among students with their classmates. The upper classes will entertain friends or business acquaintances at home, but men of other classes will more often meet at restaurants or tea stalls to socialize.

The basic traditional clothing for most Indians, men and women, is a simple draped cloth. For women this is the sari, which is wrapped as an ankle-length skirt and draped over one shoulder, with a fitted shirt underneath. Styles of tying the sari vary among regions and communities. Except for widows, who wear plain white, saris are generally colorful and can be made of cotton or the finest embroidered silks. Village men and men in some urban areas such as Kerala wear a cloth called a dhoti in its full-length form. In north India it is typically tied with one or both ends brought between the legs and tucked in, to form loose “pant” legs. In the south, the full cloth or a half-sized one is wrapped as a cylinder, an ankle-length skirt that can be pulled up and tucked in itself to form a short skirt when work requiring movement is done. Muslims tend to wear the half-cloth in colored cottons rather than the white with thin colored border favored by Hindus.

In Punjab, women, especially Sikh women, wear a baggy pants-and-shirt outfit known as the salwar-kameez. In Rājasthān and elsewhere long skirts and bodices are worn. This is also a common dress among young girls throughout the country. Men in northern India may also wear a pants-and-shirt outfit called the pajama-kurta. The pajama, which originated in India, is made of white cloth and can be loose or form-fitting. The tight-fitting style is often worn with a long closed-collar coat (the sherwani) made famous in the West when India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, wore it. Also called the Nehru jacket, it is the most formal dress for men. Turbans are worn by a broad range of men, especially Sikhs and Hindus. Muslims can often be identified by their embroidered caps.

Western-style clothing has virtually replaced traditional dress for men, especially in northern India. Most women continue to wear the sari or other Indian dress. In major urban areas such as Mumbai, Western-style clothing is increasingly popular among the emerging middle class. Many Indians are familiar with images of Western popular culture, including styles of dress, from television, the Internet, magazines, and other mass media. The younger urban generation tends to emulate Western styles. Fashionable Indian clothing often incorporates some elements of Western wear with traditional textiles and forms.

Cricket and soccer have been popular sports in India since the colonial period. India’s national cricket team competes at the highest international level. Soccer is popular in eastern India. In central India men play a traditional Indian team sport, kabaddi, that requires quickness and strength. The oldest sport, one that goes back to the time of the Hindu epics, is freestyle wrestling. Wrestling clubs, presided over by a guru, feature a regimen of Hindu religious ritual and practice.

There are a number of traditional games played mainly by men. These include chess, which originated in India, and pachisi, which literally means “twenty-five,” after the number of spaces moved in one throw of the dice in the original Indian game. Card games also are common as is gambling.

Indians with leisure time and money, such as the middle class, go to the cinema, or increasingly watch television. During school holidays families may visit relatives or go briefly to hill resorts where it is cooler. In rural areas, slack times in the agricultural cycle allow families to go on pilgrimage or attend weddings, which include much feasting. India has many religious festivals, which provide occasions for even more feasting and conversation, perhaps accompanied by music or a dance or folk theater performance.

H.

Social Issues

Social problems in India center on the connected issues of poverty and inequality. Particularly in rural areas lower castes and marginal social groups, such as tribal people and Muslims, are generally poor. India’s poor face disease, scarce educational opportunities, and often physical abuse by those who control their livelihood. It is difficult or impossible for the poor to escape and enter the modernizing sector of society, where discrimination on the basis of caste or community is less prevalent. In all classes and in urban as well as rural areas, discrimination and at times violence against women is almost taken for granted.

Poverty has been reduced in India since independence, although in 2000, 28.60 percent of the population still lived below the poverty line. Industrialization has created jobs in the cities, and rural workers have been able to diversify their sources of income. Urban workers at entry level, however, are usually forced to live in appalling conditions in slums.

Modern water supply and sanitation arrangements are rare in the poor areas of most towns and cities and are lacking entirely in most villages. As a result, many Indians suffer and even die from diarrhea, malaria, typhoid, and dengue fever. India has succeeded in eradicating smallpox and has brought down the overall death rate, in significant part by investing in a health-care system that includes hospitals, clinics, and drug manufacture and distribution. Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) emerged as a serious problem in the 1990s. To combat the disease, the Indian government, with help from volunteer groups, established a vigorous AIDS-awareness program.

Part of the problem of disease and poverty in villages is that poor people cannot afford the money and time it takes to provide treatment for their children, many of whom are already weakened by an inadequate diet. Girls of all classes are given less medical care than their brothers and so die in greater numbers. Many parents prefer sons, who remain with them and provide security for them in old age. Because daughters often require a dowry at marriage and are unlikely to earn an income that could raise a family’s economic position, they are seen as a liability. The spread of family planning facilities and the increase in confidence that children would survive to adulthood has helped reduce the preferred family size to just three children: two sons and a daughter. Second- and third-born daughters, especially in families without sons, continue to die at rates greater than average.

Discrimination against women does not end with childhood, nor is it confined to the countryside. Although India has had a woman as prime minister, the percentage of women serving in political or administrative office still remains very low. Some women are major leaders of grassroots movements, and women play an active role in India’s vigorous press. Yet women are rare in senior business positions and in the legal and medical professions. Women’s movements to combat violence against women have had considerable success in raising awareness of the issue and stimulating government action.

Discrimination against lower caste members, including the Harijans or former Untouchables, is still a problem in India. As a result violence between castes sometimes breaks out. Since independence, many lower caste groups have mobilized politically and have achieved positions of power or leverage in several states. More than 50 percent of the positions in the national civil service are reserved for members of lower castes. Efforts to organize the landless and the homeless, however, have not enjoyed the same success. In rural areas, men of lower caste traditionally serve those of higher caste. This situation has aggravated caste conflict and has helped to keep the poor politically and socially weak.

Relations between Hindus and Muslims have also been problematic. After the partition of British India into India and Pakistan, Muslims of the northern provinces who stayed in India—where they were a minority—became vulnerable. Riots between Hindus and Muslims have occurred on occasion since the mid-1960s. Muslims in rural areas remain largely untouched by the conflict. Riots tend not to occur in areas where there are structures of mutual social or economic advantage—for example, in towns with a large industry owned by Hindus and employing Muslims. Also, at the personal level, there are many examples of friendships and mutual respect. Muslim leaders have served as presidents of India, and Muslims have held positions of great prominence in all fields, including the military.

IV.

Arts

The arts in India date back thousands of years. India’s earliest known civilization, the Indus Valley civilization (about 2500-1700 bc) produced fine sculpted figures and seals. The basis for Indian music may well be traced to the chanting of the Vedas, the Hindu sacred texts composed between about 1500 and 1000 bc. Architecture from the time of the Buddha (563?-483? bc) includes stone structures called stupas that resemble earlier wooden ones. Much of Indian literature has its roots in the great Sanskrit epics, Mahabharata and Ramayana, which date from 400 bc. Secular literature in the form of story and drama has been important since the classical age of the 4th century ad. Royal patronage of these art forms continued throughout history, and the government of independent India also supports the arts with national academies for music, art, drama, literature, and other programs. There are yearly prizes for work in all the Indian languages, and in the several musical, dramatic, and art traditions. The government’s national radio network is a major employer of musicians.

As India has incorporated different peoples, so, too, has its culture absorbed outside influences. Sculpture derived from the Greeks developed a uniquely Indian style over time (the Gandhara school). Musical instruments brought by the Muslims in the 15th century were incorporated into existing musical methods in Hindu devotional poetry and song. Similar patterns are found in painting and architecture in the period of Mughal rule and patronage. British rule had no influence on classical music, but popular music was changed, particularly in the 20th century. Prose literature, and to a lesser extent poetry, was transformed by the model of the English novel, short story, and romantic poem. The British adapted Indian domestic architecture (the bungalow) and blended Mughal, Hindu, and European forms into a distinctive monumental architecture, visible most significantly in New Delhi.

Folk culture varies among regional and ethnic groups. Street magic shows and episodes from religious texts are dramatically staged in urban and rural areas. India is known for artistry in jewelry, textiles, paintings on the walls of mud houses, and images cast in metal through the lost-wax method (a process using wax to form a mold). Music and dance are performed in temples, at festivals, and at ceremonial functions at home.

A.

Literature

Indian literature has a long, rich history. Major literary influences flow from northern Sanskrit and southern Tamil origins. India’s classic literature is written in Sanskrit (see Sanskrit Literature). These literary works—mainly religious poems, epics, and prose—date to the Vedic period (about 1500 bc to 200 bc). Sanskrit literature entered a secular period beginning about 200 bc until about ad 1100. One great development for Indian literature during this period was drama. Most early dramas were based on historical epic tales. In south India, during a period lasting from the 1st to 5th centuries ad, literary works were composed in the Tamil language. These works were generally secular in nature and based on themes of love and war. By the 6th and 7th centuries the bhakti (devotional) tradition began in Tamil Nādu in southern India. This literary tradition greatly influenced Indian literature, moving north from its origin over the next five centuries.

Modern literature in north Indian languages, as they developed from Prakrits (medieval dialects of Sanskrit), dates from around ad 1200. Themes and characters of Indian literature from this period are based on Hindu religious texts, although the texts contain secular content. The work of recent centuries has brought in more secular subjects, influenced first by Persian and Urdu literature and then British literature, especially of the 19th century. In 1913 poet Rabindrinath Tagore became the first Indian to win a Nobel Prize for literature. Some present-day Indian authors write in English. Salman Rushdie, an Indian-born writer who now lives in Britain, is one of the more famous of a number of fine poets and novelists. See Indian Literature.

B.

Art and Architecture

Over many centuries, Indian architecture, sculpture, and painting developed many distinct styles based on religious, cultural, and regional influences. Some of the earliest examples of all three come out of Buddhism. For instance, Buddhist traditions gave rise to stupas, or burial mounds of earth and stone, constructed in the 3rd century bc. Images of the Buddha were carved in the 2nd century ad, and stories of the Buddha are depicted in paintings on temple walls carved in stone cliffs at Ajanta between the 2nd century bc and the 7th century ad.

After the 5th century ad Buddhism’s influence on art declined as that of Hinduism and Jainism rose. Hindu and Jain temples developed in many styles, most characterized by ornate carvings, pyramidal roofs and spires, and numerous sculptures of divinities housed within. Sculpture frequently portrayed Hindu and Jain gods in relief on temple walls, and became increasingly elaborate, linear, and decorative through the 13th century.

Muslim invaders from Central Asia and Persia brought new artistic styles and techniques, among them the dome, mosaic, and minaret. Many domed tombs and mosques from the 12th century and later have been preserved, as have some magnificent fortresses. Because Islam forbids carved images, sculpture took the form of gloriously elaborate geometric and floral designs adorning the temples. One of the most famous examples of Islamic architecture in India is the Taj Mahal in Āgra (started in 1632 and completed in 1648).

It is believed that most early painting has not survived because the materials, such as wood and cloth, that were used as surfaces were fragile. The paintings that did survive are of two types: wall paintings and miniature paintings. In addition to those found in about 30 caves at Ajanta, wall paintings dating from the 2nd to the 7th century ad have been found in cave temples in Tamil Nādu and Orissa. Most of these frescoes depict stories from the life of Buddha. The first surviving examples of miniature paintings are palm leaf manuscripts from the 11th century illustrating the life of Buddha. Secular-themed miniatures developed in the courts of Muslim sultans who controlled northern India after the 13th century. These illustrated manuscripts reached their height in the 16th through 18th centuries. They were heavily influenced by Persian art and often showed historical scenes and portraits.

Beginning in the 19th century, European influence affected all of the arts. Twentieth-century artists of significance include Amrita Sher Gill and M. F. Hussain. The best-known architect, who works in the international modern style, is Charles Correa. See Indian Art and Architecture.

C.

Music and Dance

The basic structure of music and dance in India has been fundamentally indigenous, laid out in a 2nd century ad Sanskrit treatise on drama and music, the Natya Shastra. There are two classical traditions of music: the North Indian Hindustani style and the South Indian Carnatic (Karnatak) style. Although both styles of music were influenced by bhakti (devotional) traditions, the Hindustani style was also influenced in its instruments, styles, and schools of performance by Muslims invading from the north. Modern classical musicians of note include M. S. Subbalakshmi, a vocalist; Palghat Mani Iyer, a drum performer; Ravi Shankar, a sitar (stringed instrument) performer; Ali Akbar Khan, a sarod (plucked string instrument) performer; Bismillah Khan, a shehnai (reed instrument) performer; Amir Khan, who performs khyal (a north Indian vocal style); and the Dagar brothers, who perform dhrupad (another north Indian vocal style).

Dance is a highly developed art form in India and is important as a pastime, in worship, and as part of Sanskrit dramas. The major classical dance forms are bharata natyam, kathak, manipuri, and kathakali. Bharata natyam, which is based on the Natya Shastra, is probably the most significant of these forms. It incorporates many of the precise movements, hand gestures, and facial expressions for which Indian dance is famous. Each movement and gesture the dancer performs has its own meaning. The kathak dance style originated in north India and emphasizes rhythmic footwork (under the weight of more than 100 ankle bells) and spectacular spins. The manipuri dance form, which is named for Manipur, where it originated, is known for its graceful turning and swaying. The kathakali form is a dance drama, characterized by mime and facial makeup resembling masks.

Well-known dancers of the postindependence era include Balasaraswati, who performed the bharata natyam form of dance, and Pandit Birju Maharaj, who performed the kathak form. In India, European style has influenced only popular music and dance, not classical. See Indian Music; Indian Dance.

D.

Theater and Film

India has had a distinguished theatrical tradition for more than a thousand years. The Gupta Dynasty (ad 320-550?) saw the flowering of Sanskrit drama. The great plays that survive from that time are generally secular, such as Shakuntala by Kalidasa, about the court, kings, and courtesans. Classical plays are rarely revived, although modern playwrights have experimented with traditional mythic and historical themes. Theater other than folk theater, which struggles despite government patronage to survive, is directly from the European tradition and is popular only in larger cities. Theater has been eclipsed by the cinema and more recently by television.

India produces more films annually than any other country. The audience, despite the spread of televisions and videocassette recorders, is still enormous. Popular films are generally written to a formula and are often embellished with songs and dance routines. Film themes vary from historical and religious to social: rich boy meets poor girl; twins separated at birth become policeman and criminal; boy sacrifices his love for a girl to patriotic duty or to the desires of parents, who wish him to marry another. Popular cinema rarely has realistic settings or plots, and imitations of Western films are common. Indian film is a significant cultural export to Central Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.

Even within the popular genre, there have been films with political and humanistic messages. Perhaps best known in this genre is Satyajit Ray, whose “Apu trilogy”—Pather Panchali (1955, Song of the Road), Aparajito (1957, The Unvanquished), and Apur Sansar (1959, The World of Apu)—established him as one of the world’s leading filmmakers. Recent alternative cinema, supported largely by government subsidies, has only gathered a small, elite audience. Television entertainment in India includes situation comedies (sitcoms), domestic melodramas, and occasionally multiepisode Hindu epics.

E.

Libraries and Museums

India has more than 60,000 libraries, including more than 1,000 specialized ones attached to various government departments, universities, and institutions. The National Library in Kolkata receives all books and magazines published in India. The National Archives and the Nehru Memorial Library and Museum are located in New Delhi. The Delhi Public Library is considered one of the best in India.

India has hundreds of museums. Some of them contain important historical and archaeological collections, such as the Indian Museum in Kolkata, the Government Museum and National Art Gallery in Chennai, the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalay (formerly called the Prince of Wales Museum) in Mumbai, and the National Museum of India in New Delhi. Rich collections of sculptures, miniature paintings, and other historical and archaeological treasures are housed in museums in Mathura and Vārānasi, and in several locations associated with archaeological sites. The Calico Museum of Textiles in Ahmadābād and the Crafts Museum in New Delhi have outstanding collections of Indian textiles. The Crafts Museum also houses a spectacular collection of folk art from all over the country. European art of the 19th century is a special feature of the Victoria Memorial Hall in Kolkata. The National Gallery of Modern Art is in New Delhi.

V.

Economy

Since gaining independence in 1947, India has struggled to modernize and diversify an economy that was left relatively undeveloped by economic policies under British colonial rule. In the 19th century India’s cottage industries and thriving trade were virtually destroyed due to imports of European (primarily British) manufactured goods, which the colonial government paid for with exports of agricultural products such as cotton, opium, and tea. Agricultural development was therefore encouraged, while the industrial sector was neglected. Beginning in the late 19th century there was some investment in the industrial sector and infrastructure (mainly railways and irrigation works). Nevertheless, India’s economy stagnated during the last three decades of British rule.

At independence India was desperately poor, with an aging textile industry as its only major industrial sector. Since then the country has been gradually transforming its economic base from agricultural to industrial and commercial. To fund development, however, India rapidly accumulated high levels of foreign debt. Policies of economic liberalization introduced in the late 1970s stimulated the industrial sector, leading to an acceleration of economic growth in the 1980s. In the 1990s the service sector emerged as the primary economic stimulus, reflecting a growing business economy in urban areas as well as a large government bureaucracy. Although the economic structure of the country began to change, with services contributing more to the economic bottom line than any other sector, agriculture remained the most important sector in terms of employment. Economic development was regionally uneven, with the prosperity of more developed states standing in sharp contrast to the extreme poverty of relatively undeveloped states.

In 2005 India’s annual gross domestic product (GDP) was $806 billion. Agriculture, forestry, and fishing made up 18 percent of the GDP, compared with 27 percent for industry (including manufacturing, mining, and construction) and 54 percent for services.

A.

Economic Policy

Economic policy after independence emphasized central planning, with the government setting goals for and closely regulating private industry. Self-sufficiency was promoted in order to foster domestic industry and reduce dependence on foreign trade. These efforts produced steady economic growth in the 1950s, but less positive results in the two succeeding decades.

In the late 1970s the government began to reduce state control of the economy but made slow progress toward this goal. By 1991 the government still regulated or ran many industries, including mining and quarrying, banking and insurance, transportation and communications, and manufacturing and construction. Economic growth improved during this period, at least partially as a result of development projects funded by foreign loans.

A financial crisis in 1991 compelled India to institute major economic reforms. After a rise in oil prices precipitated by the Persian Gulf War of 1990 to 1991, India faced a serious balance-of-payments problem. Because petroleum was a major import, India’s expenditures on imports far exceeded its income from exports. To obtain emergency loans from international economic organizations, India agreed to adopt reforms aimed at liberalizing its economy. These reforms removed many government regulations on investment, including foreign investment, and eliminated a quota and tariff system that had kept trade at a low level. The reforms also began a gradual process of deregulating industries and privatizing public enterprises. In 1999 the government made privatization of the public sector the centerpiece of its agenda, permitting private investment in all infrastructure industries, including power, telecommunications, and civil aviation, as well as in the financial sector. Some industries remain reserved for the public sector, including defense equipment, railways, and nuclear energy.

With the reforms, India made a dramatic shift from an economy relatively closed to the global economy to one that is relatively open. Growth of exports has helped India to increase its share of world trade, while the inflow of foreign capital has helped India reduce its external debt. Economic growth has brought an expansion of the middle class, leading to growing demand for consumer goods from shoes to luxury cars. Despite the emergence of a consumer-oriented middle class, however, income inequalities and widespread poverty remain significant issues.

B.

Labor

The Indian economy employs 435 million people. The majority of this workforce—67 percent—labors in the agricultural sector. Of the remainder, 20 percent work in services and 13 percent in industry. Women make up 28 percent of the total labor force.

Significant numbers of children are employed in India. They not only perform agricultural tasks such as herding and helping at harvest time, but they also work in cottage industries such as carpet weaving and match manufacturing, help in small businesses such as tea stalls, and act as servants in private homes. Estimates of the number of working children vary widely, due in part to a lack of formal government data on child labor. Child labor is illegal in India, and efforts have been made to abolish it, particularly in the most hazardous industries.

Unemployment rates in India are difficult to estimate because many people work in temporary or part-time jobs. Few workers are permanently unemployed, but seasonally or marginally employed people such as agricultural laborers are often underemployed. State and national governments have established fairly successful rural employment plans that hire labor to build roads and other public works.

Labor unions are relatively small in India and operate primarily in public-sector enterprises. India’s labor laws allow multiple union representation not only within an industry but even within a factory. Laws also tend to favor workers’ rights over employer prerogatives. As a result there is an increasing trend in business to hire workers on daily contracts. Older unions are linked to national trade union federations controlled by political parties. Since the 1980s, however, there has been an increase in independent unions unrelated to political parties. Some successful small-industry entrepreneurs have organized cooperatives. A notable one is the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), which has expanded from its base in Ahmadābād to other Indian cities, as well as other countries.

C.

Agriculture

Agriculture employs (with forestry and fishing) about two-thirds of India’s workforce. Most farms are small, averaging about 1.5 hectares (about 3.7 acres). About 40 percent of the land in India is cultivated by farmers owning more than 4 hectares (10 acres), but few farms are larger than 20 hectares (50 acres) due to land reforms that imposed ceilings (maximum limits) on holdings. Most Indian farmers, particularly those who own smaller farms, cultivate their land by hand or by using oxen.

India’s most important crops include cotton, tea, rice, wheat, and sugarcane. Other important cash crops include jute, groundnuts, coffee, oil seeds, and spices. Another central feature of India’s agricultural economy is the raising of livestock, particularly horned cattle, buffalo, and goats. In 2005 the country had 185 million cattle, substantially more than almost any other country. The cattle are used mainly as draft animals and for leather. As farmers increasingly use machinery, the number of livestock they raise will probably decrease. Buffalo is the main animal used for producing milk and dairy products. Milk production and distribution increased dramatically in the 1990s because of a nationwide, government-supported cooperative dairy program. Sheep are raised for wool, and goats are the main meat animal. Many Indians, particularly Hindus, refuse to eat beef for religious reasons, although they eat other meat, eggs, and fish.

Agricultural production faces occasional declines as a result of irregular monsoon seasons, resulting in widespread flooding or drought. Food imports help offset yearly fluctuations in output. India faces many future challenges in producing enough food to feed its growing population. Production of food grain has barely kept pace with the rate of population increase. The government-implemented Green Revolution, which took hold in the 1970s, encouraged the use of high-yielding crop varieties, fertilizers, and carefully managed irrigation. It resulted in a steady growth in production of food grain, allowing India to achieve self-sufficiency by 1984. However, success has been limited to areas of assured irrigation, such as northwestern India and the deltaic regions. Output has not significantly improved in dry and semiarid areas, where poverty and malnourishment remain prevalent.

D.

Forestry and Fishing

Although relatively undeveloped on a national scale, large-scale commercial fishing is vital to the economy in certain regions, such as the Ganges Delta in West Bengal and along the southwestern coast. Small-scale fishing is widespread, taking place in oceans, lagoons, rivers, ponds, wells, and even flooded paddy fields; these fish are typically sold in street markets. In recent years the government has encouraged deep-sea fishing by building processing plants and giving aid to oceangoing fleets and vessels. Local, more traditional fishers protest this encouragement because they see it as a threat to their livelihood. In 2004 the government recorded an annual fish catch of 6.1 million metric tons, about half of which was marine species.

Forests cover 23 percent of India’s total land area. The area of land planted in trees has increased steadily since 1990 due to government and commercial plantation schemes. However, the harvesting of mature trees for lumber production has tended to outpace the growth rate of replanted areas. Loss of topsoil in harvested areas as well as forestland lost to development and agriculture have also contributed to India’s difficulty in achieving sustainable timber harvests. Industrial timber species include teak, deodar (a type of cedar), and sal. Products such as charcoal, fruits and nuts, fibers, oils, gums, and resins are among the most valuable commodities from India’s forests.

E.

Mining

India ranks among the world leaders in the production of coal, iron ore, and bauxite. Cut diamonds are also an important export product. India also produces significant amounts of manganese, mica, dolomite, copper, petroleum, natural gas, chromite, lignite, limestone, gold, and zinc.

F.

Manufacturing

The government’s push for industrialization beginning in the late 1950s gave India a diversified and substantial manufacturing sector. Industrial production steadily increased, reducing India’s reliance on imports, and by the 1980s India ranked among the “newly industrialized countries.” Important industrial products include processed food, textiles, iron and steel, chemicals, aluminum, and vehicles of all kinds from bicycles to trucks and railway engines. India also is a significant producer of electrical machinery, fertilizer, refined petroleum products, and copper. High-technology items such as computers are manufactured in collaboration with foreign companies. In the 1990s India’s computer software industry expanded enormously.

G.

Energy

Energy is the keystone of India’s agricultural and industrial development. To meet its energy needs, India is heavily dependent on coal. The next most important energy source is petroleum, followed by hydroelectricity and natural gas. Thermal plants, principally burning coal, produce 84 percent of India’s electricity; and hydroelectric plants generate 12 percent. Although India remains self-sufficient in coal, the country must import petroleum to meet growing domestic demand. In 2003 imported fuels (principally petroleum) represented 29 percent of India’s total imports.

H.

Services and Tourism

Service industries in India include transportation, trade, banking and insurance, real estate, and public administration and defense. Retail and wholesale trade are among the most important services. Major cities, such as Mumbai and Kolkata, are centers of such trade. Government service is also very important. India’s government provides many social services to its population, particularly in the fields of education, health, and public administration. India earns an increasing amount of foreign exchange from data processing and call-center services that are outsourced from businesses in the United States and other countries.

Tourism is another significant part of India’s service economy. In 2005, 3.9 million tourists visited the country. Foreign exchange earnings from tourism were more than $7.5 billion that year. The bulk of India’s tourists come from Bangladesh and Pakistan. Other major countries of origin include the United Kingdom, the United States, Sri Lanka, Germany, France, and Japan. Most foreign tourists visit a few tourist sites, such as the Taj Mahal and other monuments in Āgra; the “pink city” of Jaipur, known for its pink-hued architecture; and Delhi, with its magnificent Red Fort and many museums. Other tourist destinations include the rock-cut caves of Ajanta and Ellora, the temples at Khajurāho, and the beaches in Kerala, as well as cities such as Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, New Delhi, Vārānasi, and Udaipur.

I.

Transportation

India has a network of railroad lines that covers the entire country. The network is the largest in Asia and one of the largest in the world. The length of operated track is 63,465 km (39,435 mi). The network is badly in need of modernization. All railroad lines are publicly controlled, but some private-sector participation is being encouraged to help raise revenue. The system carries millions of passengers daily, but passenger traffic is heavily subsidized.

By 2002 there were 3.9 million km (2.4 million mi) of roads in India, of which 63 percent were paved. Each state operates a publicly owned bus company. The major Indian ports, including Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai, Cochin, and Vishākhapatnam, are served by cargo carriers and passenger liners operating to all parts of the world. The port system is operating beyond its intended capacity, although efforts are under way to modernize and expand port facilities. India has a large merchant shipping fleet. The shipping industry is dominated by the Shipping Corporation of India, which is partially government owned. A comprehensive network of air routes connects the major cities and towns of the country. In the 1990s India opened up domestic air service to private airlines for competition with publicly owned Indian airlines, and air service greatly improved as a result.

J.

Communications

The government-controlled postal services remain the backbone of India’s communication industry, handling billions of letters and parcels each year. The post office also transmits money orders in large amounts, mainly serving workers sending home part of their pay, and has a large number of savings certificate programs that serve the same population.

India’s telecommunications system has been expanding rapidly, especially since the government began liberalizing the sector in 1994. The country’s first privately owned telephone network was founded in 1998, and a state-held monopoly on international telecommunications services ended in 2002. The country had 14 main telephone lines per 1,000 persons in 1994, when the reforms began. By 2005 the number had increased to 46 per 1,000 and was increasing at a rapid rate, although still well below the world average of 172 per 1,000. Cellular telephone subscriptions are also on the rise, but exclusively among more affluent Indians. The majority of people in India only have access to public telephones, especially in rural areas. In the 1990s the government launched a major program to increase public access to telephone service in all areas of the country. One goal of the program was to install a public telephone in each of India’s approximately 600,000 villages; by 2002 this initiative had reached about 470,000 villages. Another goal was to set up public call offices (PCOs) in both rural and urban areas. More than 1 million PCOs had been established by 2002, and a number of these were being upgraded to provide Internet access. In 2005, 60 million Indians were online.

Thousands of newspapers are published in India. Most principal dailies publish from multiple cities, including the English-language Times of India, the Indian Express, the Hindustan Times, the Hindu, and the Statesman; and the Hindi-language Navbharat Times and the Punjab Kesari. Newspapers are privately owned in India.

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting controls the country’s major broadcasting networks, All India Radio (AIR) and Doordarshan India (Television India). AIR broadcasts throughout the country with a network of more than 200 stations. The Indian government limits television broadcasting by private companies. Satellite television was introduced in India in 1991. Since the early 1990s there has been an exponential growth in television viewing, spurred in part by the spread of private cable systems and television broadcasts via satellite that bring news, sports, and entertainment from around the world.

K.

Foreign Trade

The economic reforms introduced in 1991 radically altered India’s trade policies in order to encourage foreign trade. In 1990-1991, before the reforms were implemented, India recorded $27.9 billion in imports and $18.5 billion in exports. In 2003 India had $77.2 billion in imports and $63 billion in exports. Principal trading partners for India’s exports include the United States (by far India’s largest trading partner), the United Kingdom, China (primarily Hong Kong), Germany, and Japan. India receives the bulk of its imports from the United States, Singapore, Belgium, the United Kingdom, and Germany.

India’s principal exports are gems and jewelry, garments and textiles, engineering products, chemicals, and marine and agricultural products. Other important exports include ores and minerals, leather goods, carpets, electronic goods, and computer software. In the 1990s India emerged as a major supplier of computer software, as well as computer services such as software programming and data processing. The export of software services and electronics is growing rapidly, contributing 15 percent of the country’s total export earnings in 1999-2000. India’s major imports include petroleum and petroleum products, nonelectrical machinery, precious and semiprecious stones, electronic goods, chemicals, cooking oil, iron and steel, fertilizers, and plastics.

L.

Currency and Banking

The rupee, India’s basic monetary unit, is divided into 100 paise (44.10 rupees equal U.S.$1; 2005 average). The Reserve Bank of India, founded in 1934 and nationalized in 1949, operates as India’s central banking institution. It is the sole authority for issuing bank notes and the supervisory body for all banking operations in India. It supervises and administers exchange-control and banking regulations, the government’s monetary policy, and licenses for private and foreign-owned banks. The central government’s Ministry of Finance and statutory bodies such as the Security and Exchange Board of India also help control the financial sector. Although government-owned banks dominate India’s banking industry, numerous private and foreign banks have been licensed to operate in the country since the 1991 economic reforms.

There are a number of stock exchanges in India. One of the largest is the Bombay Stock Exchange in Mumbai. Founded in 1875, the Bombay Stock Exchange is the oldest in Asia. Another major stock exchange is the National Stock Exchange, founded in 1994, also in Mumbai.

VI.

Government

The Republic of India is a federal republic, governed under a constitution and incorporating various features of the constitutional systems of the United Kingdom, the United States, and other democracies. The power of the government is separated into three branches: executive, parliament, and a judiciary headed by a Supreme Court. Like the United States, India is a union of states, but its federalism is slightly different. The central government has power over the states, including the power to redraw state boundaries, but the states, many of which have large populations sharing a common language, culture, and history, have an identity that is in some ways more significant than that of the country as a whole.

A.

Constitution

India’s constitution went into effect in 1950, providing civil liberties protected by a set of fundamental rights. These include not only rights to free speech, assembly, association, and the exercise of religion—echoing the United States Bill of Rights—but also rights such as that of citizens to conserve their culture and language and to establish schools to aid this endeavor. The constitution also lists principles of national policy, such as the duty of the government to secure equal pay for men and women, provision of free legal aid, and protection and improvement of the environment. India has universal voting rights for adults beginning at age 18.

The Indian parliament has amended the constitution many times since 1950. Most of these amendments were minor, but others were of major significance: For example, the 7th amendment (1956) provided for a major reorganization of the boundaries of the states, and the 73rd and 74th amendments (1993) gave constitutional permanence to units of local self-government (village and city councils).

B.

Executive

The head of state of India is the president. The role of president, modeled on the British constitutional monarch, is largely nominal and ceremonial. Most powers assigned to the president are exercised under direction of the cabinet. The president’s major political responsibility is to select the prime minister, although that choice is circumscribed by a constantly evolving set of conventions (for example, that the leader of the party with the largest number of seats in parliament should be given the first opportunity to form a government).

The president is elected for a five-year term by an electoral college consisting of the elected members of the national and state legislatures. The president is eligible for successive terms. The vice president is elected in the same manner as the president and assumes the role of the president if the president is incapacitated or otherwise unable to perform his or her duties.

A council of ministers, or cabinet, is headed by a prime minister and wields executive power at the national level. The council, which is responsible to parliament, is selected by the president upon the advice of the prime minister. Each council member heads an administrative department of the central government. In most important respects, the Indian cabinet system is identical to that of Britain. There is a constitutionally fixed division of responsibilities between national and state governments, so that the national government has exclusive powers over areas such as foreign affairs, while the states are responsible for health-care systems and agricultural development, among other areas. Some areas are the joint responsibility of both the national and state governments, such as education.

The actual administration is carried out by a many-tiered civil service, almost all of whom are recruited by a competitive, merit-based examination. At the top is the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), whose senior members serve as the administrative heads of departments, responsible only to their minister. All members of this service are assigned to particular states and spend most of their early career serving in those states. They typically start as district-level administrators and rapidly move to head state-level departments. Additional central government civil services include the Indian Foreign Service, the Indian Police Service, and services for audits and accounts, posts and telegraphs, customs and excise, and railroads.

C.

Legislature

The constitution vests national legislative power in a parliament of two houses: the Lok Sabha (House of the People), the lower house, and the Rajya Sabha (Council of States), the upper house. The Lok Sabha consists of 545 members directly elected by universal adult suffrage, except for two members who are appointed by the president to represent the Anglo-Indian community. The number of seats allocated to each state and union territory is proportional to its population. The term of the Lok Sabha is limited to five years, but the president may dissolve the house upon the advice of the prime minister, or upon defeat of major legislation proposed by the government. A provision of the constitution that was intended to expire after ten years, but which has been consistently extended, allocates reserved seats to the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes in proportion to their share of the population.

Members of the Rajya Sabha are elected by the members of the state legislative assemblies, except for 12 presidential appointees who have special knowledge or practical experience in literature, the arts, science, or social services. The elected members are chosen by a system of proportional representation for a six-year term; one-third of the Rajya Sabha is chosen every two years. A two-thirds majority is required for some constitutional amendments to pass; some amendments also require ratification by one-half of the states.

D.

Judiciary

Judicial authority in India is exercised through a system of national courts administering the laws of the republic and the states. All senior judges are appointees of the executive branch of the government, with their independence guaranteed by a variety of safeguards. Noteworthy among these safeguards is a provision requiring a two-thirds vote of parliament to remove a judge from office. The highest court is the Supreme Court; all Supreme Court judges serve until a retirement age of 65. The top court at the state level is called the High Court; members of the Supreme Court are selected from among justices of the High Courts. Judges of the High Courts are in turn selected from subordinate courts operating at the district level. Important judicial posts at the district level are filled by members of the administrative service.

E.

Local Government

India is a union of 28 states and 7 union territories. The Indian states are Andhra Pradesh, Arunāchal Pradesh, Assam, West Bengal, Bihār, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarāt, Haryāna, Himāchal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmīr, Jharkhand, Karnātaka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Mahārāshtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Orissa, Punjab, Rājasthān, Sikkim, Tamil Nādu, Tripura, Uttaranchal, and Uttar Pradesh. The union territories are the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Chandīgarh, Dādra and Nagar Haveli, Damān and Diu, Delhi (formally called the National Capital Territory of Delhi), Lakshadweep, and Puducherry. The form of state governments in India is generally modeled after that of the central government. The states each have a legislature invested with the governance of state affairs. The union territories of Delhi and Puducherry also have their own legislatures. Each of these 30 political units is formally headed by a governor, who is appointed by the president of India to a five-year term. The governor’s powers resemble those of the president. The governor’s most important duty is to invite a party leader to form a government after state legislative elections.

The basic territorial unit of administration in the states is the district. Within the districts are units called tehsils or talukas for departments such as revenue and education, and “blocks,” which are the base units for agrarian development. Local self-government includes village councils (panchayats) and municipal councils, which began under British rule. Local governments have been saddled with major duties, few sources of revenue, and a weak base of political power. These bodies were frequently superseded for long periods by the state governments. In the mid-1990s new constitutional provisions, including the requirement that a percentage of village council seats must go to women, were implemented to help improve these local governments. A few states, most notably West Bengal and Karnātaka, had successful village government systems in the 1980s and 1990s.

The central government of India created three new states in November 2000. The new states were carved out of three existing states—Uttaranchal from Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh from Madhya Pradesh, and Jharkhand from Bihār—to create smaller, more manageable administrative areas. The new states are populated by tribal groups that had waged decades-long campaigns for the creation of separate states in the interest of cultural autonomy and regional economic development.

F.

Political Parties

Political parties play an important role in India’s democracy. For many years a centrist national party known as the Congress Party was the most powerful political party in India. Established in 1885 as the Indian National Congress, it led India in the struggle for independence. Its members have included influential figures such as Mohandas Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru. With few exceptions, the Congress Party provided the country’s prime ministers until the mid-1990s. The Congress, also known after 1977 as the Congress (I) Party, significantly declined in popular support in the 1990s due to allegations of corruption.

A Hindu nationalist party, the Bharatiya Janata (Indian People’s) Party (BJP), became the largest single party in the Lok Sabha in 1996 and retained that position in the 1998 and 1999 elections. Unable to win an outright majority, it led a multiparty coalition called the National Democratic Alliance. The BJP found its base of support in the growing Hindu middle class. It continued policies of economic liberalization that had been initiated by the Congress Party. The reforms led to rapid and sustained economic growth, but much of India’s population remained in poverty. In the 2004 elections, the BJP lost control of the Lok Sabha to the Congress Party, which had campaigned on a platform that appealed to India’s rural poor.

Other important parties in India include the Janata Dal (People’s Party), a secular, socialist party appealing to lower caste and Muslim voters. The Janata Dal was a key member of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance. The Janata Dal and the BJP are the primary successors to the Janata (People’s) Party, which was a coalition of opposition parties that formed in 1977 and defeated the Congress Party in that year’s elections. The coalition’s victory represented the first change in the ruling party of the national government after India gained independence. However, the coalition fractured in 1979 and its government collapsed, leading to the return to power of the Congress Party in 1980.

The far left of the political spectrum is dominated by the Communist Party of India (Marxist), which draws support from urban and rural laborers, and the more moderate Communist Party of India. Both parties have been significant participants in coalition politics.

Regional parties are of major importance in many states, including Tamil Nādu, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab, and several smaller states, particularly in the northeast. These regional parties deliberately focus on support of particular people of a particular state and thus have no ambition of extending their reach to other states. They elect a significant number of members of parliament, and many have been included in coalition governments by forming alliances with larger parties.

G.

Social Services

India’s central government has focused on improving the welfare of the Indian people since independence. The focus has been on transforming the health of the population and providing benefits for the weakest members of the society, especially scheduled castes and tribes, women, and children. These efforts have resulted in improvements, although the degree varies by state.

Health-care facilities have been extended to all parts of the country, with tens of thousands of health centers in operation. Still, the number and quality of personnel staffing them are less than desirable, and spending levels have been low. Although the number of hospital beds in relation to the population has increased since independence, there are still too few doctors for the population, particularly in rural areas. There are 1,951 people per physician, and 1,111 people per hospital bed. The government also promotes family planning and alternative systems of health care, particularly those with deep Indian roots such as Ayurvedic medicine.

Life expectancy at birth was 69 years in 2007, compared with 32 years in 1941. The infant mortality rate is still high at about 35 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2007, down from about 150 per 1,000 live births in the late 1940s. Smallpox was eradicated in the 1970s, and deaths on a large scale due to cholera, influenza, and other similar diseases have also been eliminated. Malaria and tuberculosis occur at much reduced rates, but new drug-resistant varieties are cause for concern. While cases of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) numbered only a few thousand in the early 1990s, the virus that causes AIDS had infected about 5,600,000 people by 2005. Efforts to check the spread of the disease have focused on the most at-risk groups, including prostitutes in major cities and drug users. In some areas, meanwhile, the disease has made its way into the general population, creating a potential crisis for India’s already overburdened health-care system. Malnutrition remains a serious problem, despite the gradually increasing amount of grain available per capita (rice, wheat, and grains such as millet remain the major food source of most Indians). Public sanitation facilities are not adequate, and in most areas, including most towns, smaller cities, and the countryside, are almost nonexistent.

Welfare programs for the scheduled tribes and scheduled castes (including the Harijans, or Untouchables) have centered on “compensatory discrimination,” which is similar to affirmative action: Positions are reserved for this population in the legislature, civil services, and educational institutions. Also, education subsidies are provided, including scholarships and reduced fees. A national commission for scheduled castes and tribes monitors progress in ending discrimination against these gro